Harikrishna, Humpy fumble in 6th round

Doha, Dec 3 (UNI) Indian chess players began well but looked jaded towards the end with the Grandmaster duo of P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy losing their rapid sixth round match in the 15th Asian Games here today.

In the men section, both Harikrishna and fellow Grandmaster K Sasikiran began with draws in the fourth round.

Bangladesh GM Reefat Bin Sattar forced a draw against Harikrishna, while Sasikiran was held by unheralded Darwin Laylo of Philippines.

Both the Indians, however, made amend in the next round with Harikrishna outwitting Philippino IM Ronald Dableo and Sasikiran beating Ahmad Samhouri of JOrdan.

In the sixth round, Harikrishna surrendered to Chinese Grandmaster Yue Wng, while Sasikiran split points with Qatari IM Mohammed AL Sayed.

In the women section, Humpy began with successive wins against Iranian WIM Atousa Pourkashiyan and Qatari GM Zhu Chen before faltering in the sixth round where Chinese WGM Xue Zhao got the better of her.

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